BlackRock Q1'25 Earnings Cite Circle
BlackRock released its Q1'25 earnings and hosted its earnings call Friday, but made just a few comments on cash and fixed-income CFO Martin Small tells us, "Finally, BlackRock's cash management platform saw $1.0 billion of net inflows in the first quarter. Cash management results reflected growth in the Circle Reserve Fund, partially offset by seasonal redemptions from U. S. Government funds." CEO Larry Fink comments, "Whether seeking capital preservation in cash and short duration or capitalizing on opportunities and equities or looking for income and uncorrelated returns in private markets, BlackRock's comprehensive offering is leading to clients consolidating more of their portfolio with them. I look at our cash business as one example of how we help clients manage asset allocation and liquidity. Our cash AUM is up at an all time high. As of April now, it's at $950.0 billion." He says, "We see large opportunities for growth in digital assets and more broadly for blockchain and tokenization technology. Digital assets drove cash management net inflows this quarter as we continue to manage cash-based reserves through our relationship with Circle. And BlackRock tokenized digital liquidity fund [BUIDL] available on a public blockchain became the first Wall Street issued fund to cross over $1.0 billion in AUM and just recently surpassed $2.0 billion. BlackRock will continue to look for ways to push on chain finance forward as part of our leadership in financial technology and innovation and in data." During the Q&A, Fink adds, "We've seen an elevated increase in April, which is an unusual time to see elevated increases in cash. We had $20.0 billion in inflows this month alone in cash. But let's be clear, there's over $12.0 trillion [sic] in money market funds, so there is this huge reserve of money that will be put to work in the future. We're having a lot of conversations related to fixed income."
